By Josh Cole
A trio of new signings have arrived at Hartsdown Park as Ben Greenhalgh looks to bolster his squad for the business part of the season!
In no particular order, up first and rejoining The Club is Emmanuel Oke!
The 22-year-old defender comes back to Margate after briefly appearing for us during October/November of this season to help with squad depth!
He also played for us in 2022/23 where he made his breakthrough at Hartsdown Park, having a good year and then getting a move to National League North side, Kings Lynn Town, where again, he thrived, being a favourite amongst fans for the 23/24 campaign!
During that 2022/23 season with The ‘Gate, Eman did score in the penalty shootout win against Chatham Town which saw us lift the Kent Senior Cup trophy!
We would like to welcome our second signing for today, winger Tushaun Walters, to Margate FC!
TT as he is also known, played for Tottenham and Chelsea’s youth academies before joining non-league!
He has also played for Maidstone, Ramsgate and Hastings United, just to name a few but his best spell in terms of stats came at Herne Bay from 2019-2021 where he made 33 appearances, scoring 11 goals!
Walters will add pace and skills to our frontline for a crucial end of season run where we look to finish as high in the playoff places as possible!
Our third and final signing is our former captain and fan favourite, Sam Blackman!
The 29-year-old joins us on loan from Folkestone for the rest of the season!
‘Blacky’ as he is called around Hartsdown Park has made over 100 appearances in Blue from 2021-2024 as well as being our captain in the 2023/24 season!
He left in the summer to continue playing at a step three level with Folkestone Invicta but after irregular game time, comes back on loan to The ‘Gate to help us finish as high as possible and end the season strongly!
He will also add key experience and leadership in the middle of the park, crucial to having success in the back part of the season!
Here is what player/manager Ben Greenhalgh had to say about these three new additions: “Eman is a player we’ve looked after for a long time and is definitely someone that will progress far in the game. He has the physicality and the quality on the ball. He came in with us this season for a few games before getting a move to Hemel Hempstead, but an injury had set him out for the last couple months, and he’s back in with us now for the run in which has been a massive boost to the squad!”
“Tushaun is someone we’ve had our eyes on all year, after how well he was doing at Ramsgate at the start of the season we knew he’d be the perfect dynamic for what we are missing in our squad. He’s also a conference south winner with Maidstone only two seasons ago. Adding his quality and direct style of play will be very influential for the final 11 games!”
“Having Sam back will be massively influential, I know how keen he was to stay in the off-season but a few things were happening which lead to him going to Folkestone and staying at the level. He cares massively for the club and we have been screaming out for a bit more experience going into the final two months and that addition has already been noticed in training this week!”
If you wish to sponsor any of these three players, then you can email [email protected] or call 01843 221769 to confirm. The pricing is £65 for one shirt or £110 for both the home and away shirt
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